Friday, December 4, 2015

$3.4 Trillion: Fossil Fuel Divestment Commitments Break New Record

From:  EcoWatch 

COMMENT - This was bound to happen when the news hit the Rockefellers had divested.

| December 2, 2015 7:47 am


The fossil fuel divestment campaign has broken a new record at COP21: More than 500 institutions representing more than $3.4 trillion in assets have made some form of divestment commitment according to 350.org and Divest Invest, two organizations coordinating the growing movement.


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Bill McKibben, co-founder of 350.org, spoke today at a COP21 side event announcing the divestment commitments of more than $3.4 trillion. Photo credit: Stefanie Spear
 
The new numbers are another impressive leap for the divestment effort, although campaigners are quick to point out that some of the commitments are only partial divestments and the $3.4 trillion represents the total amount of assets represented by institutions, not the amount of money divested, which is difficult to track due to varying degrees of disclosure. 

Today’s announcement is another sign in the early days of the Paris climate summit that investors are reading the writing on the wall and dramatically shifting capital away from fossil fuels and towards clean, renewable energy.

On Monday, Bill Gates and a group of investors announced the launch of a multi-billion dollar private sector coalition, Breakthrough Energy Coalition, to accelerate clean energy innovation. Other voices, including many of the world’s most vulnerable countries, are demanding that the Paris agreement send a clear signal that the age of fossil fuels has come to an end and the dawn of renewables is irreversible. MORE

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